Rubicon Trail 17-19 July 2009

[womb raider 940]

Little sluice is for built buggies and rigs that don't mind severe body damage. There is a bypass around it. It's kind of like backdoor at JV. A place where you watch rigs attempt to drive over except way more beautiful surroundings than JV. JMHO

sounds like fun

[JeepGal]

This was Chris playing around in the Little Sluice a few years back.












He did drive out of it with very little damage considering....

Be forewarned!

Tam

[MaRShiN]

Little sluice is for built buggies and rigs that don't mind severe body damage. There is a bypass around it. It's kind of like backdoor at JV. A place where you watch rigs attempt to drive over except way more beautiful surroundings than JV. JMHO

Yeah after seeing a few videos I will check it out but probably not quite Little Sluice ready. My powers of levetation have been on the fritz lately.

[igofshn]

since we are doing most of the trail in one day, we won't spend much time at the little sluece. we will be going around it.

[08RUBIJK]

since we are doing most of the trail in one day, we won't spend much time at the little sluece. we will be going around it.

Are you towing your rig to Tahoe, leaving your tow vehicle in Tahoe then driving back to the trail head or are you just driving the rig straight to the trail head?

[igofshn]

Flat towing and leaving my tow rig at Ice House Resort. They charge less than $10 a day to store it. It is probably 50 miles or more back to ice house from the end of the trail.

[chromedome]

Damn... Really would love to join you guys, but already scheduled Hawaii over that weekend. Anyone want to do a pre run in the next few weeks??

[igofshn]

If anybody wants to meet up, I am located south of fresno between the 5 and the 99. Straight up the 41 off the 5 gets you to my place and then it would be the 41 to the 99 up to the 50 to the trail. It is not any farther for the people in socal. some of us are camping thursday night at the trail head.

[seapahn]

Damn... Really would love to join you guys, but already scheduled Hawaii over that weekend. Anyone want to do a pre run in the next few weeks??

Hey Keith! I might be able to. Let me know ... looks like the Rubithon is again around the weekend of June 21st (remember all the Toyotas last year? ) so how about possibly the next weekend (6/27-28th ish)?

[nwoods]

Trying to get an idea of the kids and ages that will be along on this trip. We have 11 confirmed vehicles, and quite a few Maybe's. That's a lot. Of the Yes's, Bachman, Provelogear, and CWeed have stated they are also bringing their sons.

My son is age 10, turns 11 in a few weeks. What are other kid's ages?

[nwoods]

The plan for this is to start at loon Lake and go all the way to Rubicon springs. Spend 2 nights and go out on sunday. saturday can be used for goofing off or wheeling up the big sleuce. I have always wanted to do that.

Can you elaborate on this? I am unfamilar with the area. Is it your intent to run the trail from Loon Lake to Rubicon Springs in one day, camp overnight at the Springs, then run it back to Loon Lake for another overnight stay?

I have always thought that the Rubicon took a few days to accomplish. Why are we trying to get a big group through it in a day?

I don't understand.

Also, I saw your post about Ice House Resort for trailer drop off. That sounds good to me, but I'm not clear on how to get from Ice House Lake area to Loon lake trail head...

Once we complete the trail, where will we be? How do we get back to the Ice House Resort?

thanks for your patience to my newbie questions

[MyBrokenJeep]

We are in!

Trying to get an idea... will be along on this trip. We have 11 confirmed vehicles...

You can count on US to be there! One vehicle with 2 people....

[seapahn]

Can you elaborate on this? I am unfamilar with the area. Is it your intent to run the trail from Loon Lake to Rubicon Springs in one day, camp overnight at the Springs, then run it back to Loon Lake for another overnight stay?

The trail has a couple of starts but the main start is from Loon Lake. It ends up at Lake Tahoe. At a slow pace, you would run the trail from Loon to around Buck Island Lake (or Spider Lake when it was still open), camp one night, then run the next day to Rubicon springs, camp another night, and then head out the third day (which ends up being a fairly short day, allowing time to get home, etc).

The plan here is to run the first day to Rubicon Springs and camp there 2 nights. Then head out towards Tahoe on the 3rd day. This works well now because one, it allows for an entire day of exploring, camping, and just relaxing at Rubicon springs without having to setup and teardown camp. Also, for most of the rest of the trail, you can't venture off more than 25 feet or so from the center of the trail which makes it kind of awkward to find good camp sites (especially if the trail is crowded). Rubicon Springs is private land so once you pay your camping fee (fairly small amount), it's easy to find nice spots.

Getting 11 vehicles to Rubicon Springs in one day might be a bit of a challenge as inevitably things happen that slow down progress. Also it really depends on how many other breakages and trail traffic situations we run into. So ultimately its not going to be a "oh we must do this" but more of a "we'll plan and then play it by ear and see how things go".

The trip from the end of the trail on the Tahoe side back to the ice house is probably around 60 miles or so and could take about 1.5 to 2 hoursish.

[igofshn]

Last year it took us just under 10 hours to do the trail and that was with a stop of more than 1 hour on top of the big sleuce waiting for a group to come up. If everyone is prepared then we should not have any trouble. Even though everyoone has signed up, I would be surprised if everyone actually makes it for the run. things always seem to come up.

[nwoods]

Another question: Are most of you camping before and after the trip, or are you staying at the Ice House Resort that Thursday night and Sunday night? If you are camping, where, Ice House Campground?

Edit, after a fair amount of searching, it seems that Ice House Resort actually is only a campground, though it has 5 motel rooms also, but mostly just camp sites. http://placerville.info/Ice_House_Resort

I called and spoke to Julie, who said those dates (July 16th and 19th) are wide open and she expects no issues with leaving the truck and trailer there. She said reservations are not necessary. I gave her the group name of MyJeepRocks, which she seemed to recognize from previous years. So if anyone else is staying there, toss in the MJR name.

Regards,

Nathan

PS: here is a Google Map link to the approximate location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&sour...4&z=12&iwloc=A